Matthew Firth

Matthew Firth

School of Humanities

Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics

Matthew is an early career researcher affiliated with Flinders University, University of Adelaide, and Australian Catholic University. With research specialities in the history of early medieval England and in Scandinavian saga literature, he has published numerous articles on various aspects of society and culture in England and Scandinavia in the Middle Ages, and their intersections. He is currently working on his first monograph, a biographical study of English queens-consort in the years 850-1000, scheduled for publication the Routledge Lives of Royal Women series.

Matthew is the current editor of Cerae Journal, an assistant editor of the Brepols published series East Central Europe, 476–1795, the reviews editor for the Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association (AEMA), and the Communications Officer for the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (ANZAMEMS).

Matthew's research focuses on English and Scandinavian history and literature from the tenth to the thirteenth century with a particular focus on  cultural memory, historical narrative, and Anglo-Scandinavian acculturation. He has published widely on these topics, the following being his most recent publications:

Matthew Firth, 'Identifying Queenship in Pre-Conquest England,' in Norman to Early Plantaganet Consorts: Power, Influence, Dynasty, ed. Aidan Norrie et al. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), 17-45.

Matthew Firth, 'Memories of Viking Age Cultural Contact: England in the Íslendingasögur', in Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, Series 3, Vol. 17: Essays in Memory of Paul E. Szarmach, ed. Joel T. Rosenthal and Virginia Blanton (Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, 2023), 1-25.

Erin Sebo and Matthew Firth, 'Saxo Grammaticus's Account of the Viking Age Site on the Danish Island of Hjarnø in Gesta Danorum', Scandinavian Studies 95, 2 (2023), 166-82.

Erin Sebo, Matthew Firth and Daniel Anlezark (eds), Emotional Alterity in the Medieval North Sea World, Palgrave Macmillan, 2023.

  • Journals
    Year Citation
    2023 Firth, M., & Schilling, C. (2023). The Lonely Afterlives of Early English Queens. Neophilologus, 107(1), 127-143.
    DOI
    2023 Sebo, E., & Firth, M. (2023). Saxo Grammaticus's Account of the Viking Age Site on the Danish Island of Hjarno in Gesta Danorum. SCANDINAVIAN STUDIES, 95(2), 166-182.
    DOI
    2023 McCarthy, J., Sebo, E., & Firth, M. (2023). Parallels for cetacean trap feeding and tread-water feeding in the historical record across two millennia. Marine Mammal Science, 39(3), 830-841.
    DOI Scopus1
    2022 Firth, M. (2022). On the Dating of the Norse Siege of Chester. Notes and Queries, 69(1), 1-4.
    DOI Scopus1 WoS1
    2021 Firth, M. (2021). Deconstructing the Female Antagonist of the Coronation Scandal in B’s Vita Dunstani. English Studies, 103(4), 527-546.
    DOI Scopus1 WoS1
    2021 Firth, M. (2021). After Alfred: Anglo-Saxon Chronicles and Chroniclers, 900-1150. JOURNAL OF THE AUSTRALIAN EARLY MEDIEVAL ASSOCIATION, 17(2), 241-243.
    2020 Firth, M. (2020). Kingship, Society, and the Church in Anglo-Saxon Yorkshire. JOURNAL OF THE AUSTRALIAN EARLY MEDIEVAL ASSOCIATION, 16, 227-229.
    2020 Firth, M. (2020). The Character of the Treacherous Woman in the Passiones of Early Medieval English Royal Martyrs. Royal Studies Journal, 7(1), 1-21.
    DOI Scopus3
    2020 Firth, M., & Sebo, E. (2020). Kingship and Maritime Power in 10th-Century England. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 49(2), 329-340.
    DOI Scopus2 WoS2
    2020 Firth, M. (2020). Æthelred II ‘the Unready’ and the Role of Kingship in Gunnlaugs saga Ormstungu: 2019 Winner of the Society for Court Studies Annual Essay Prize. Court Historian, 25(1), 1-14.
    DOI Scopus1
    2019 Firth, M. (2019). The broken body in eleventh to thirteenth-century Anglo-Scandinavian literature. Comitatus, 50(1), 45-75.
    DOI
    2018 Firth, M. (2018). The Politics of Hegemony and the 'Empires' of Anglo-Saxon England. Cerae, 5, 27-60.
    2017 Firth, M. (2017). Integration, Assimilation, Annexation: Æthelstan and the Anglo-Saxon Hegemony in York. Melbourne Historical Journal, 45, 89-111.
    2017 Firth, M. (2017). Constructing a king: William of Malmesbury and the life of Æthelstan. Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association, 13, 69-92.
    DOI Scopus1
    2016 Firth, M. (2016). Allegories of Sight: Blinding and Power in Late Anglo-Saxon England. Cerae, 3, 1-33.
    2016 Firth, M. (2016). London Under Danish Rule: Cnut's Politics and Policies as a Demonstration of Power. ERAS, 18(1), 1-20.

  • Books
    Year Citation
    2023 Sebo, E., Firth, M., & Anlezark, D. (Eds.) (2023). Emotional Alterity in the Medieval North Sea World. Palgrave Macmillan.
    DOI

  • Book Chapters
    Year Citation
    2023 Sebo, E., Firth, M., & Anlezark, D. (2023). Emotional Alterity in the Medieval Northern Sea World. In E. Sebo, M. Firth, & D. Anlezark (Eds.), Emotional Alterity in the Medieval North Sea World (pp. 1-16). Palgrave Macmillan.
    DOI
    2023 Sebo, E., Firth, M., & Anlezark, D. (2023). Emotional Alterity in the Medieval Northern Sea World. In E. Sebo, M. Firth, & D. Anlezark (Eds.), Emotional Alterity in the Medieval North Sea World (pp. 1-16). Palgrave Macmillan.
    DOI
    2023 Firth, M. (2023). Rage and Lust in the Afterlives of King Edgar the Peaceful. In E. Sebo, M. Firth, & D. Anlezark (Eds.), Emotional Alterity in the Medieval North Sea World (pp. 201-230). Palgrave Macmillan.
    DOI
    2023 Firth, M. (2023). Rage and Lust in the Afterlives of King Edgar the Peaceful. In E. Sebo, M. Firth, & D. Anlezark (Eds.), Emotional Alterity in the Medieval North Sea World (pp. 201-230). Palgrave Macmillan.
    DOI
    2023 Firth, M. (2023). The Vikings and Francia, 799–936. In The Routledge Handbook of French History (pp. 31-41). Routledge.
    DOI
    2023 Firth, M. (2023). Identifying Queenship in Pre-Conquest England. In Queenship and Power (pp. 17-45). Springer International Publishing.
    DOI
    2023 FIRTH, M. (2023). MEMORIES OF VIKING AGE CULTURAL CONTACT:. In Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, series 3, volume 17 (pp. 1-26). Arc Humanities Press.
    DOI

Matthew is a 2023 Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies 

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